Smethwick
| Smethwick | |||
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| Coordinates | 52 ° 29 ′ N , 1 ° 58 ′ W | ||
| OS National Grid | SP0287 | ||
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| ZIP code section | B66 | ||
| prefix | 0121 | ||
| Part of the country | England | ||
| British Parliament | Warley | ||
Smethwick [ˈsmɛðɪk] is a city in the West Midlands of England . It borders Birmingham and West Bromwich .
Smethwick was originally an urban district, and since 1894 a Municipal Borough in the County of Staffordshire . In 1907 it became a county borough , which was subordinate to the previous county administration only in police matters. 1966 Smethwick was merged with the west bordering city of Oldbury and with Rowley Regis to the County Borough of Warley. Warley, in turn, merged with West Bromwich in 1974 to form the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell . Oldbury-Smethwick has 139,529 inhabitants (2006).
Smethwick was mentioned as Smedeuuich in the Domesday Book . Until the late 18th century, Smethwick was a hamlet belonging to the Harborne parish. In the 18th century the community grew through the construction of several canals. Matthew Boulton and James Watt built a foundry in Smethwick in the late 18th century, which was equipped with gas lighting by William Murdoch in 1802 . The oldest working machine in the world, the Smethwick Engine , built by Boulton and Watt, originally stood in Smethwick, near Bridge Street ; today it is in Birmingham's new science museum , the think tank . In 1829 the Galton Bridge was built , spanning a canal and a railway line and with a span of 46 meters it was the longest single arch bridge in the world at the time. In Smethwick there was also a wagon construction factory, a plant of the Guest Keen and Nettlefolds company, in which, among other things, screws were produced, the mechanical engineering factory Tangye, as well as a number of other industrial companies.
Sons of the city
- Oswald Rayner (1888–1961), secret agent
- Patrick Cowdell (* 1953), boxer
